Our library offers a variety of business services such as copying, scanning, emailing, and faxing, and we also have staff on hand to assist patrons with these services. We often have patrons request assistance with scanning and emailing or faxing sensitive documents including checks (with banking/routing numbers), driver’s licenses, Social Security cards, or other financial/legal documents.
I am wondering:
a) What responsibility do library staff have to inform a patron if we think they may be in the process of communicating with and sending documents to a scammer? How do we protect our patrons from scams/fraud while also respecting their privacy?
b) How liable is the library/library staff if a patron is scammed after library staff use library resources to send documents/information that played into the scam, even at the patron's request?